Building the Cellar

 

We had to build a cellar.  The first day of June we went to Island Park and started getting out trees.  We peeled all the logs as we felled them.  The big ones were used for the beams and the huge ones were hauled to a sawmill for the finished lumber and sheeting.  It was easy to get the trees cut but it rained every day and the mosquitoes were terrible.  We had Dean Skinner's camper to live in and everyone else slept in tents.  It was good to cook on a tiny stove rather than over a campfire, for that many.  Carl Grover worked for us that summer and he knew how to do everything.  His wife Melva was a jewel.  She would drive back and forth and bring us groceries.  She took our wet clothes to the Laundromat to dry, so we had dry clothes each morning.  It took us two weeks to get the logs out.

    When we tried to dig the foundation for the cellar, it was full of lava rock.  Earl Wilcox blasted it out for us.  It was a good place to build a cellar, several times beams were replaced but it finally collapsed in 2012

    May men in the community told Jess he was crazy.  The ground was too steep.  He would never be able to dig the spuds.  We had a gorgeous crop. the best looking crop in the entire valley we thought.  There wasn't a weed in it.  Since Jess and the older boys were building the cellar I hired Berneice Neilsen and her kids to help me weed.  I didn't move pipe that year, they had enough help without me.  I did help nail the sheeting on top of the cellar.
     In the middle of August, disaster struck.  There was a severe frost and the spuds never grew after that.  There was a slight breeze blowing up the Snake River and up the hill and our spuds didn't freeze but continued to grow. We had some of the largest spuds grown that year.  Stanley didn't plant until the middle of June and it froze in August.  He only had as little pile of spuds in one end of his cellar.  Most farmers spuds were like marbles,  It was the shortest crop on record.  We had our new cellar completely full. We sold the first part of the cellar for $3.00 and the last ones for $6.00 field run.  That was fantastic.  It is unbelievable what one fantastic spud year can do for your finances.

Car Miracle

Jess had bought an old green Plymouth car from the State Highway Department.  We let the pipe movers drive it, to move pipe so you can imagine how dirty it was.  I had planned on driving the good car to Stake Sunday School Leadership meeting.  At the last minute, either Steve or Lee needed the good car.  I tried to clean the old car but that made me late.  My mother taught me that an Atkinson was never late.  When I got to the corner by the store, the voice within me said, "Go Home".  I thought, I haven't got time.  Again the voice said, "Gwen, go home."  I immediatley thought that something was wrong with one of the boys so I went back.  I was driving too fast and when I got just to our house and slammed on the brakes there wasn't any brake.  I  sailed right up over the bridge and the car didn't stop until I was by Irvine Burns's field.

    I now understood why the voice within me told me to go back home.  The next place I would have needed the brakes would have been when I tried to stop on the main highway at Winder. Highway 91 was a busy road, before the free way was built.  I would not have been able to stop the car, at that corner and could have hit another car.

    Later, when Jess looked at the brakes he said the brake line had broken.  What a blessing that the brakes hadn't gone out, when the pipe movers were driving down a steep hill. I have always been grateful that I heeded that voice within me and that I was living so the Holy Ghost could guide me.

Boating Fun

One winter, when we were in Las Vegas, with Dean and Marva Skinner, Jess bought a boat,  Dean was amazed that Jess could just write a check for the entire amount.  The next summer we would all work really hard so we could take off Friday evening, pitch a tent on Little Elk Creek on Palisades.  No one fished but we all water skied.  We would stay Friday and Saturday night and come back early Sunday, for the boys to go to Priesthood meeting.  This was a fun time of life.  All we were farming was the Sunnydell place and home place. Looking back I have regretted growing spuds on the dry farm.  Never again did we have time in the summer to do fun things.  At first we would not move pipe on Sunday but then the electrical company assigned us which day we had to shut our pumps off.  On the other hand because of the dry farm our boys all had the backing to do what they wanted for their life work.  I know the Lord guided us in the decisions we made.

Of the Boating Days Lee Wrote,

“Probably about 1959 Dad and Mom went to Las Vegas in the winter time for a few day’s vacation.  To our great surprise and delight they brought home a Boat.  It was only a 14 foot boat with a 40 hp outboard motor but it would pull a water skier.  We had so much fun with that little Boat as a family , we would go up to Little Elk Creek-a wind protected portion of Palisade Reservoir, camp, water ski, and have a great time.  We also would go to Island Park Res, and even went on Easter Sunday the first year to Dairy Land Fun Farm, by St. Anthony to try and learn to water ski.  Boy was it Cold.

We had to quit going boating on Sunday, but I’ll never forget the great times with that little Boat.  Steve and I also used to take dads old ‘55 Green Ford pick-up up in the field above the 3 way check and pull each other water skiing on the canal.  You could only go about 1000 feet.  You had to  go straight-couldn’t turn but had a lot of Fun!”

Randy’s Broken Leg

     Randy started school, when he was six.  He was three years behind Tom because he had missed the school deadline by twenty four hours.  I tried to get the school board to let him start early because he could already read.  Tom would bring his papers home and Randy would read them.  When Randy started school, the teacher said he could read better than most of the second grade so at Christmas break they advanced him to second grade.
 

The first year we farmed the Summer's, place we  had seed spuds left over that we had cut in the Webster cellar.  We didn't have a cellar yet.  LaVar Grover wanted to buy the seed but wanted to look at it first.  Jess and I took the three youngest with us and went up to the cellar.  While we were visiting, Tom and Randy climbed some pallets, that were leaning against the wall.  The pile slid down and trapped Randy.  His leg was broken.  I felt badly about it.  I had left him, while I cut spuds and then when we were all finished and I was taking care of him, his leg was broken.  I wonder how many mothers have regrets similar to mine.  Randy remembered his Dad driving carefully over the dry farm roads to Rexburg to Dr. Hoffman, since each bump caused more pain.

     The bad things about it was that Randy couldn't go swimming all summer.  The boys enjoyed swimming and it was a must. You couldn't become an Eagle scout without passing the swimming and life saving merit badges .  Randy said (1987) said he remembered chasing the boys around the church gym with his crutches.  One day he and Milon Neilson were playing in the end of the chicken coop and Milon put sawdust down his cast.   He was in misery with the itching.  We spent a long time with a clothes hanger getting the saw dust out and Randy didn't complain the next day.

     The Primary had an around the block parade and Randy was David chasing LaMar Wilcox with a sling shot.  I thought Randy was walking pretty good, for only having the cast off for a week.  A friend said he should be walking better than that.  He would probably have a limp all his life, my heart ached.  When I prayed that night, I ask the Lord what I should do so Randy didn't limp.  The little voice inside me, reassured me that his leg would be normal.  It was only a few weeks later that he was walking without a limp.

Farming on the Hill

 

 Jess had a tremendous gift of foresight.  He could see that if you took certain steps today,. It would lead to certain outcomes tomorrow.  We was not a man of many words, but his words when he did say something were well thought out and were truly words of wisdom.  In addition to being a visionary man he was not afraid to take chances.  He had been a small-scale valley farmer most of his life, when in 1961 he took a chance and leased some irrigated potato land on the Rexburg Bench from Bert Webster, which we only farmed for two years.   

  WE now had equipment for that many acres, so Jess started looking for ground and when he couldn’t find any to rent he went off on his own.  Bill Summers owned the ground above Lee’s house and it was summer fallowed which meant that every year you had to leave half of it unfarmed.  Bill was a jewel of a person and told Jess he could.  Jess was risking everything he had by investing in a pump and sprinkler system.  If we didn’t harvest a crop of spuds we would lose everything.  Jess had confidence he could do it.  He designed his own system and due to his previous record he didn’t have any trouble borrowing the money.

    We couldn’t afford to drill a well so we pumped out of the canal and ran a pipe line up the hill.  He put in an irrigation pump in the canal just by Lee’s house. Had mainline installed up the hill and planted half the acreage to spuds while Mr. Summers farmed half of it in grain.       It was a miserable spring.  It rained and rained and we cut all the seed by hand  by May 31 we had our 180 acres planted.  The heavier valley ground could not be planted until the middle of June.

Playing Cards

 

 

Do you know anyone today who looks a lot like Jess?

 

 

It was always fun to go to my parent’s house. Randy once wrote a school essay, My Teenage Grandfather. That describes my Dad. He was a great tease, and joker.   He always challenged my sons to foot races and tricked them.

Max, Marva, Tom and I were married and we would meet at their home to play cards. Our favorite game was Hearts, a form of rummy. You passed 3 cards, you didn’t want, to the person sitting next to you. The one who ended up with the Queen of Spades lost. Jess passed his cards to Bonnie. Then he led spades,right after he had passed her the Queen. Bonnie, not having any other spades, had to play the Queen, thus losing the game. Bonnie was the epitome of a gracious lady, but she said “Damn You Jess”, loud and clear.   We laughed about that for years.

Lillis Sutton Family

I love this picture.   It show how cute Mom was when she was expecting Kent.  I think is is fun to see everyone else as well!

Kent

Kent was born Sept. 23, 1959. I wanted him born before we started digging spuds. Tom and Randy had both been born at harvest time. All five times before, when I went for delivery, I was ready. Only the sixth time was I sent back home. The doctor told me I was just anxious for the baby to come. I waited a few more days and when I went back this time, it only took a few hours for Kent to come.

Kent was small but healthy in every way. I became angry when people would look at my beautiful baby boy and say how badly they felt about him not being a girl. I trusted the Lord to know what was best for me and my family. With six sons and one bathroom the bathroom door was never closed unless I went in. I had planned all along on a girl. I hadn’t had any morning sickness with the first five but with Kent I would get deadly sick, just as I started cooking supper.

I hadn’t purchased any new baby clothes so I didn’t have anything pink. I still have the dress I crocheted for Steve and all the boys were blessed in it. Kent was pure pleasure from the word go. He was good natured, active and his brothers loved him with a passion.

Lee was very protective of Kent. We could never scold or punish Kent because Lee would always put his arms around Kent and console him. Kent was still sleeping with Jess and I, while I nursed him. After I weaned him, I couldn’t get him to go to bed by himself, he was terrified of the basement. The only way we could get him to sleep was for someone to lay down by him. Lee would take Kent downstairs and lay by him until he was asleep and then come back up stairs. Lee let Kent sleep with him every night.

One night when we were boating by Little Elk Creek, Kent was sleeping in a sleeping bag with Lee and he wet the bed. Lee woke me up and told me what had happened and I dried Kent and wrapped him in a quilt and Lee tucked Kent back in with him and they were both soon asleep. Lee has always had a tender spot in his heart for anyone having trouble. He was good to help me when I was busy.

   Kent said he never remembered Steve living at home. Steve went to Moscow to school, when Kent was two and was married when Kent was five.

Square Dancing and Kindergarten

 

1956 was the year we started square dancing.  Most of our friends were enthused about it.  We over did it.  We danced three nights a week: one night in the Archer church with Verge Young as the teacher, then another night at the Rigby Armory building, then occasionally on Saturday nights go to a regular dance.  It was too hard on Jess.  He was a good sport about it but he could hardly breathe after a fast dance.  We never danced much after that but our friends did.

 

      Garth was now old enough to start kindergarten.  Archer school didn’t have a kindergarten but the Rexburg schools did and I thought we should also.  Garth’s group especially needed help.  They were a large group and mostly boys.  It would be a handful for any teacher.  Veola Grover and I went to Bessie Wilcox and ask her if she would teach a session of kindergarten.  Bessie had taught first grade for many years and missed teaching but didn’t want to teach full time.   We agreed on her salary.   

        We weren’t allowed to use the church, so our first classes were held in the basement of Stanley Erickson’s house, across the street from the church.  I furnished the rug for the basement room.  The next year we went to the superintendent of the Madison schools and he thought it was a good idea and allowed us to use an empty room, at the Archer school but we had to pay Bessie.  He did let us have paper and supplies at cost and a duplicating machine.  It was successful from the start.  Bessie Wilcox taught the kindergarten in Archer for the next seventeen years. 

Bowling

We bowled with Dean and Marva for four years.  It was great.  I had a good average and Jess bowled especially well.  The highest game I ever bowled was 231.  I was expecting Kent at the time and I was very careful not to fall down.  We won the championship one year.  We bowled in Rexburg one summer and in Rigby the rest of the time.  After Dean closed his butcher shop at 9:30, we would go to IF to the Elks and then bowling.  We had to wear a dress to go to the Elks so we would take slacks and change out of our dress, at the bowling alley. We were both embarrassed to wear high heeled shoes with our slacks.  Now, 2013, it is the style.  I still have one pair of red high heeled shoes I can’t part with.  

One night when we returned home from bowling and stopped the car in front of the house we thought the bowling balls were rolling around.  We had never experienced that before.  Then we heard all the chickens making a terrible noise.  We wondered if there was a skunk in the chicken coop.  We didn’t know until the next day that there had been a severe earthquake in Yellowstone Park.  

A dance club was formed in Rigby and Dean, Marva and most of our bowling friends joined.  Jess wasn’t well enough to dance so we soon dropped out of the group.  All at once we were without close friends to do fun things with.  Within a few months, Dean was ill with cancer.  It brought us heartache to see someone we loved, die a slow painful death.

Primary Stake Presidency

 

     I enjoyed being in the Stake Primary Presidency but it required a lot of time.  We held weekly Pres. meetings and visited an assigned ward, once a month.  Each month a stake meeting was held for all the ward people to come and get helps for the next four weeks.  We were reading the Book of Mormon as an assignment from the general board.  Each month in opening exercises I would give a talk on the assigned scripture for that month.  One month the chapters assigned didn’t have anything very interesting.  The day before Stake Meeting I still didn’t know what I was going to talk about.  I was picking strawberries and knelt down and ask the Lord to help me.  I reminded the Lord how many times I had read the chapter and had tried, but didn’t come up with an idea.  A few minutes later the talk came into my mind.  I always felt that was one of the best talks I ever gave, in the four years I served.  The only time I could read or study was to get the boys to bed, sleep for a few hours and then get up at 3:00  or so and either clean house or read and study and then go back to bed.  

     Once  we had a stake board meeting that was to start at 7:30.  I had to pick up something from the store before it closed at 6:00.   I brought my dress clothes and decided to just stay in town, until time for the meeting.  When I went to change my dress, I realized I hadn’t brought a slip and my dress was a little sheer.  I left my coat on.  Besides that I was nursing Tom but by the end of the day I usually didn’t have any milk and I had forgotten to bring a bottle of milk for him.  Needless to say he fussed most of the meeting.  It was one big disaster.  I still cringe when I think about it.

Trip to Mexico

We took some interesting trips in 1958, with Dean and Marva Skinner, the best friends we ever had.   It was hard to be away and I wonder now how we did it.  We went to Mexico for three weeks.  We had a new Buick and drove clear to Mexico City. We laughed and told jokes every day.  The night we stayed at Mazatlan we told the desk clerk we wanted two rooms.  He tried to tell us we wanted one room with two beds.  He spoke only Spanish to us.  We couldn’t make him understand so we ask to see the room.  Dean took one look and said, “We can’t share this room, there isn’t even a door on the bathroom.  The clerk started to laugh and said that is the closet.  He spoke perfect English. We ask him to show us the town and he rode with us.  We saw a funeral with everyone dressed in black and walking behind the coffin.  We saw inside one home and did not realize how so many people, could live in such a small area.  We saw poverty that I could not imagine.   

     The next day we went deep sea fishing.  It was a big disappointment. It cost a fortune and never even had a bite.  When we returned to the dock, we saw the fish other boats, had brought in.  Jess and Dean were both sea sick.  That was the first time I had ever seen any one turn green but they both did.   

     At Guadalajara. the brakes went out of the car.  Since it was a new car they didn’t have any parts to repair it.  We had to wait two days.  We had a mountain pass to go over and the garage man told us not to go before noon.  We were anxious to get on our way, so we left early.  We had only driven an hour when the fog was so thick we had to stop.  We sat by the side of the road and played pinochle .  Finally a car came from the other way and we decided if he could drive in the fog so could we.  We had only driven a hundred yards and we were out of the fog.   We saw ruins, bull fights and local things but we were all  missing our kids and wanted to go home.  The thing that tasted best when we got back to US. was milk.

     Viola Erickson stayed with the kids and Tom was really sick while we were gone.  Steve and Lee did all the chicken chores before and after school. Sam Kennigton was suppose to gather eggs in the daytime.  One day he got drunk and didn't gather the eggs and the kids had a horrible mess

Our Five Sons

Randy

Oct 16, 1955

       I was huge with Randy, but I picked up spuds, most of the day.  Steve and Lee were the real pickers and I mostly held the sacks for them and helped what I could.  Saturday night we only had a few acres left and we weren’t going to have the entire crew come Monday morning to help finish, so we worked late.     Sunday morning I realized that Randy was on his way.  It was about noon when Jess and I started to town, leaving the other boys at my mothers.  Dr. Hoffman had planned on taking his family to Jackson, for a ride.  He stayed, knowing I would need him, before the day was over.

Disaster  averted 

         October 15 was the deadline for school admission.  If you were born after the fifteenth you had to wait until the next school year.  I wanted Randy born so he would be just two school years behind Tom.  Dr. Hoffman wouldn’t start me early.  He said it wasn’t worth the risk.  When Randy was born, the cord was wrapped around his neck and he was blue from the exertion of coming.  If the doctor had started me early, as I wanted, Randy would have been dead or had brain damage.  I will always be grateful to Dr. Hoffman for being wiser than I was.  

The machine they were using, at the hospital, to relax you, wasn’t working.  Randy was the first baby I had that I didn’t have anything to deaden the senses.  It was a wonderful experience.  Randy was the biggest of the six sons and weighed eight pounds and one ounce.     While I was on the delivery table, I ask Dr. Hoffman, when I could go home.  He jokingly said, ‘If you can get up and walk to the car you can go.” I started to get up and he changed his mind and thought I ought to stay for a few days.  I only stayed two nights and was anxious to get home .

Dr. Hoffman  was more like a personal friend than a doctor.  He had one boy and the rest of his children were girls.  His wife was expecting about the same time.  Dr. Hoffman said if I had my fifth son and they had a girl we would exchange babies.  I had Randy and they had a girl but neither wanted to trade.     .

    

New Church Booklet

 

A little booklet  was given by the Gospel Doctrine Class to ward members for Christmas in 1950

The Teachers were W.I. Holley and Mary Liljenquist  President Nora Grover, Secretary Leah Briggs.  I Don’t know who wrote the poems.

                                                 The House Our Fathers Built

On a sagebrush plain, in days long past,

A new Archer Church was completed at last.

And the proud sound echoed with joyous speed,

This will meet every need in word, thought, and deed.

It was hard for such a few

To build a house and pay for it too.

Some gave a nickel, some a dime,

Other gave freely of their time.

But when nineteen fifty rolled round,

There wasn’t a vacant chair to be found.

Suddenly there arose such a clatter

Everyone turned ‘round to see what was the matter.

                   No Room!

 

 

 

 

This Is the House We Built

Guided by faith, we put works into action,

That we might have space, convenience and attraction.

A house of worship and prayer

With room and a welcome for every one there.

The months have been long, our hearts have been light

As we worked side by side and thrilled at the sight

Of a steeple that points to the blue sky above,

A symbol of faith in God whom we love,

May this house be held sacred by those who meet here,

And my those whose kind hands have labored with cheer,

Have joy and rejoicing, satisfaction supreme,

And meet in eternity…..A realized dream!

Chicken Business

 

Being in the chicken business was a change of life.  We bought baby chicks and waited for about three months to get our first egg.  The chickens were all laying good when they got sick..  The eggs had a thin shell and weren’t saleable.  Farmers Feed and Supply, where we had bought the baby chicks, told us what to use for medicine and to just put it in a tank on the third floor and let it go into the water fountains.  What they didn’t realize and neither did we, was that the medicine needed to be mixed thoroughly.   The medicine came out to strong and all the chickens had a double dose of sulfa and were dying fast.  We should have just killed them but we struggled to keep them alive.  They never did lay good again.  Now instead of eggs being sixty cents a dozen they were thirty cents a dozen, just what it cost to produce them.  That was the only disaster we had.  The next batch of chickens really produced and we made a healthy profit.

  We realized that the middle man was making the most money so we started delivering to the stores in I.F. and some families in Rexburg.     It required a lot of work to feed, gather, candle and package the eggs.  People came to the house to buy eggs and wanted to sit and visit for hours and I didn’t have time for that.  I finally figured out a way to get my scriptures read.  I would have Steve read aloud to me while I worked with the eggs.  I thought he would gain a testimony of the gospel that way.
       The bad thing was that we packaged the eggs in the basement.  Once a week Jess would lift the cases of eggs, up through a basement window and I would load them in the pickup.  Jess  had a bad back and lifting up with a case of eggs made his back bend back wards and he had severe pain.  The doctor told him he could be cured if he would sleep in a bed with his knees raised up and take the pressure off his back.  We set up a hospital bed in the front room and Jess slept there every night for months.  Eventually his back pain eased but he had to be careful how he lifted.  I had to stand on a chair with a case of eggs and lift them through the window.  One of the boys would finish pulling them through the window and then I would go outside and lift them to the pickup.

Church Dedication

   The church was finished and we were using it but it couldn’t be dedicated, until our share of the cost was completely paid.  The last few months we were ask to make a monthly cash donation.  It took until Dec. 12 1954 before the money was raised.   I was disappointed when I learned the Sterling W. Sill was the General Authority coming to dedicate our building.  He was a new General Authority and I didn’t know anything about him.

      The dedication was a rich spiritual experience.  The Primary children sang with all their hearts and Jeannette Sharp and several leaders of the ward spoke but when Sterling W. Sill started to speak, it was like magic. The spirit filled the room and his talk was outstanding.  I have often wished a copy had been made of the talk but that was before cassette players were invented.

     Lee turned eight in Dec. and was the first one confirmed in the new church.  It was tradition to have the entire family come for dinner, the day of the confirmation.   My family, and all of Jess’s family came but it was easy to have a big group, when everyone brought something and I had room to set tables for everyone.

This was the last Sacrament Meeting held in the Old Rock Church.  Grandma Rachel is on the far Left in the middle. Steve is the boy on the front row far right, next to Clyde Bybee.

New Church

 

   There weren't enough classrooms in the old church. I was a Sunday School  teacher so I brought my class to my house each Sunday morning and back to the church for closing exercises. Everyone was happy to be getting a new church.

Archer ward was united as we worked together to earn the money to pay for our new building. We put on banquets, where the sisters donated the food. The husbands bought tickets to come and eat the food their wives had cooked, washed the dishes and cleaned up the mess after. We put on shows at the school house. The one we made the most money on was, was a minstrel show presented six times in other wards. We had a magician show that did really well. Zella was Primary President and we served the dinner for the Primary stake conference. We were exhausted as we cooked the food, carried it to Rexburg, set up tables and served the dinner.

I don’t think this would be appropriate today!  Eldon Robison is the first Black man on the back row Left.   Norman B Erickson in the middle and Karl Grover on the far right.   Most of the others are anyone's guess!

Strawberries

   I had a big garden and a wonderful strawberry patch.  I picked the berries the day Tom was born.  They needed to be picked again the third day, when I left the hospital.  I took Tom out to the edge of the patch and wrapped him in a blanket.  I didn’t realize how sensitive the skin of a new born baby was.  When I got back to the house, one side of Tom’s face was a bright pink.  I had left one side exposed to the sun.     Ten years previous, Rachel had sent away for some special strawberry plants. I got starts from her and still had some 20 years later.  I had three long rows south east of my Archer home and planted 3 long rows, in Burton and all the Jensen family enjoyed them.       After I moved, Rex’s grandson said the berries were fabulous and wanted to know if I wanted to pick them the first year after I moved away.  I planted a few by my mother’s house in Lyman, when I lived there.  I wanted to have a strawberry patch, when I got a permanent home again.  

The fall after Tom was born, I stayed at Rachel’s and helped cook for the men.  This was the first year I hadn’t picked spuds.  I realized how much I always enjoyed the freedom of working as hard as I could from morning to night.  That is a pleasure, when you only do it for two weeks out of a year

The Chicken Business Begins

     The winter Tom was born we decided to go into the chicken business.  Eggs were sixty cents a dozen, which was high and wheat was cheap.  Jess figured on paper, that with normal results, he would be able to take flying lessons with the profit.  At this stage of life he didn’t dream he could ever afford to buy an airplane.  He just wanted to learn to fly one.

  We hired Ellis Rice to lay the cinder blocks for our three storied building.  It was huge for the day.  The first time my sister Marva  saw it she said, “I didn’t think you were going to build a church in your back yard.”  Jess and I were Ellis’s  helper.  We carried the blocks to him and mixed the mortar.  Since Tom was just a baby, Jess would get everything ready for Ellis, before he left in the morning and I would help in the afternoon.  It worked great.

Ellis was a hard worker and had the know how to do a good job.  I cooked for him and that was a hardship, but he appreciated it.  

  Ellis started working the first part of January, 1954.  It was the day after I had been sustained as a counselor to Lila Moore in the Stake Primary Presidency.  We were meeting at nine and we were going to select the officers and teachers.  I thought surely I would be back at noon.  Just in case I put some beans on the slow burner and left.  I didn’t get home until late in the afternoon.  Lila Moore, Lucille Ricks and Cleo Johnson and I covered the list of every Primary board in the stake, and after much prayer we made the final decision.  I felt the spirit telling us whom to choose.  I know the Lord cooked dinner that day.  When I got home, late that afternoon I rushed out to see what the men had eaten for lunch.  Ellis said that was the best beans he had ever eaten.  All of my boys know what Jess cooked to go along with the beans, he scrambled some eggs. 

Tom learned to walk at seven months because, while I helped Ellis, Tom was in a walker bouncing around on his feet and he was good natured, with Garth helping to entertain him. Lee and Steve were in school.

Tom

   Tom was born Oct 1, 1953       

     The men decided to bring the church calves down before spud digging started.  Tom was due soon and I assured Jess that he would only be gone twelve hours and nothing happened that fast.  He hadn’t been gone an hour when I realized that things were moving.  I thought if I kept busy the day would go faster.  I was sure that Jess would be back before I had to go to the hospital.  I picked the strawberries,  (I had a huge patch) washed the car and started to bottle apples.  All at once I realized I couldn’t wait any longer.  I phoned my mother and she said she would take care of the three boys and Rachel said she would go with me to the hospital if I drove.  Rachel had assisted with many births and I was grateful she was with me.     The nurse seemed to be in slow motion, as she prepared the admittance sheet.  Finally I told her, “I am going to have this baby right here if we wait any longer”.  She didn’t look convinced.  Rachel said we could fill out the paperwork later.  Tom was born half an hour later.  The nurse came and apologized to me.  She said that I didn’t look like I was big enough to have a baby.  Tom was a healthy baby and Jess didn’t know he had another son for eight hours. 

      We made a mistake when we named Tom, Richard Thomas.  We had planned on calling him Richard. There were four boys named Richard born, within just a few months.  We decided that would make four Richards in the same school.  We decided to call our son Tom.  We should have had the named changed on his birth certificate.

       Tom was the quickest and most active baby I had.  He was always on the go.  He walked when he was just a few days short of eight months. He climbed everything.  One day when I came in from the chicken coop, he was sitting on top of the fridge.  He was grinning from ear to ear, proud of what he had done.  He had climbed from a chair to the top of the stove and then stood on a kettle and from there climbed to the top of the fridge.  I prayed constantly that my kids would be protected, when I had to leave them.  When I went to the chicken coop during the summer, I would put Tom on the back lawn in his walker, that way I could see him by looking out the window.  He was a good baby and would play by himself.  The other boys were always around and would help watch him.

Building the Archer Church

  Building the Archer church.     The old church house, that stood just east of our present church, was not adequate to meet the needs of our fast growing ward.  Jess was on the committee that decided which type of building was needed.  The men met for hours and poured over plans.  We rode down to Utah with Russell and LuDean Grover  to look at the new churches, that had just been completed. It was easier to make decision looking at a building, than it was to look at plans.  

       Building the Archer church was a community project.  The actual work began May 8,1953.  Mr. Willmore was the general contractor and all of the labor was donated.  It was a thrill to see the progress week by week.  Jess’s Dad was one of the main men on the finance committee.

      Jess and Rulon Wilcox were given the assignment to buy calves in the spring and then haul them to Island Park country, for summer pasture and bring them back to the farmers, in the fall.  It required a lot of work and cooperation for everyone.   Jess worked many hours and always furnished his truck.     It was successful the first year.  They made a good profit.  The next year the calves were high priced in the spring and cheap in the fall and they didn’t make any profit, after all that work.  Jess always felt badly about the second year.  .